From its controversial student-run beginnings to its carefully controlled and monitored big-business attraction, college sports have evolved into an increasingly popular and demanding phenomenon in the United States. Along with the publicity and reputation that is created for the institution, many have found that intercollegiate sports serve several functions for the participants and community as well. While these functions also help balance and maintain the social order of the institution, unequal opportunities and distribution of power is found among the participants and non-participants, and the athletes themselves. Furthermore, with the new popularity and demand for victorious, competitive teams, colleges have lost their goal between balancing academics and athletics and using sports as an aid to help improve the athletes’ educational experience and opportunity. College sports were not always the greatly admired and successful attractions that they are today. They were first created in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by students who needed some physical activity to liven their plain and serious lives. During this time period, sports activities were solely intra-collegiate and the main competitions were between each grade level (Flowers, 2009). With the new class rivalries came a sense of community that students needed to direct their attention away from strictly educational activities. However, in the nineteenth century, the addition of new academic studies, electives, and professional courses began to break apart the singular class unity that sports created. Intra-collegiate sports transformed into intercollegiate sports after the Industrial Revolution and invention of the railroad allowed sports t... ... middle of paper ... ...sau4TLaWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGuskmxqrJRuePfgeyx44Dt6fJ56uIA Knorr, J. (2004). Athletics on campus: Refocusing on academic outcomes. Phi Kappa Phi Forum, 84(4), 11-12. http://content.ebscohost.com.ezp.pasadena.edu/pdf14_16/pdf/2004/L1J/01Oct04/15210855.pdf?T=P&P=AN&K=15210855&S=R&D=bsh&EbscoContent=dGJyMMvl7ESeqLY4yOvqOLCmr0yeprNSrqq4SrGWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGuskmxqrJRuePfgeyx44Dt6fJ56uIA Richman, E. & Shaffer, D. (2000). “If you let me play sports”: How might sport participation influence the self-esteem of adolescent females?. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 24(2), 189-198. http://content.ebscohost.com.ezp.pasadena.edu/pdf14_16/pdf/2000/PWQ/01Jun00/3827923.pdf?T=P&P=AN&K=3827923&S=R&D=aph&EbscoContent=dGJyMMvl7ESeqLY4yOvqOLCmr0yeprJSs6i4S7OWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGuskmxqrJRuePfgeyx44Dt6fJ56uIA Witt, J. (2014). Soc 2014. New York: McGraw-Hill.
The presence of activity and sport is found within cultures and societies all over the world, and throughout history. Activity in the form of sport can often be the purest form of expression for a society or individual. The sporting world is often thought to be a microcosm of the actual world with the problems and issues of society still being ever present in the sporting community. Since sport can be used as an expression of self, it is no wonder that sport is often a reflection of the society that it occupies. One such society that was deeply impacted by the role of sport is that of Native American boarding school students in the 1800’s and 1900’s. These students lived tough lives but just like how it had helped other cultural societies, sport was able to provide these students with basic needs of autonomy and pride.
While college sports play a valuable role on university campuses, it is important for administrators to not lose perspective. That some football coaches earn more than university presidents, for example, is clearly wrong. Essay Task Write a unified, coherent essay in which you evaluate multiple perspectives on college support for sports teams. In your essay, be sure to: • analyze and evaluate the perspectives given • state and develop your own perspective on the issue • explain the relationship between your perspective and those given
Van Rheenen, Derek. "Exploitation in College Sports: Race, Revenue, and Educational Reward." International Review for the Sociology of Sport 48.5 (2013): 550-71. Print.
Pappano, Laura. “How Big-Time Sports Ate College Life” Norton Sampler: Short Essays for Composition, 8th ed. Pages 591-600. 2013.
Thelin, J. R. (2000). Good Sports? Historical Perspective on the Political Economy of Intercollegiate Athletics in the Era of Title IX, 1972-1997. The Journal of Higher Education, 71(4), 391. Retrieved April 1, 2014, from http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2649145
Student athletes should not be paid more than any other student at State University, because it implies that the focus of this university is that an extracurricular activity as a means of profit. Intercollegiate athletics is becoming the central focus of colleges and universities, the strife and the substantial sum of money are the most important factors of most university administration’s interest. Student athletes should be just as their title states, students. The normal college student is struggling to make ends meet just for attending college, so why should student athletes be exempt from that? College athletes should indeed have their scholarships cover what their talents not only athletically but also academically depict. Unfortunately, the disapproval resides when students who are making leaps academically are not being offered monetary congratulations in comparison to student athletes. If the hefty amount of revenue that colleges as a conglomerate are making is the main argument for why athletes should be paid, then what is to stop the National Clearinghouse from devising unjust standards? Eventually if these payments are to continue, coaches, organizations, and the NCAA Clearinghouse will begin to feel that “c...
Howard-Hamilton, Mary F., and Julie Sina. "How College Affects College Athletes." New Directions for Student Services (2011): 35-43.
“Class and Cleats: Community College Student Athletes and Academic Success” by David Horton Jr. talks about the impacts of intercollegiate sports at community colleges. Horton goes into to detail on how important it is for athletics to be part of community colleges, and uses data to back up his claim. He uses data and interviews current and former community college athletes to support his claim that intercollegiate sports are vital. The athletes Horton interviewed for his study talk about how community college gave them a chance to play sports even though they did not attend a big university. One student said,” I really wanted to play baseball. That’s what I love to do my whole life and I really didn’t have any other options, so I really didn’t
Sixty years ago college sports were in no comparison as popular as they are today. Universities were not contracted with te...
The current institutional structure of intercollegiate athletics is attempting to maximize educational quality and athletic excellence simultaneously. Each of which will inevitably impinge on one another. Universities claim that their athletes are amateurs who are attending college for academic achievement and play sports in their free time.
"College Athletic Programs Undermine Academics." Student Life. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Opposing Viewpoints. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 27 July 2011.
Jessica Statsky, in her essay, “Children need to Play, Not Compete” attempts to refute the common belief that organized sports are good for children. She sees organized sports not as healthy pass-times for children, but as onerous tasks that children do not truly enjoy. She also notes that not only are organized sports not enjoyable for children, they may cause irreparable harm to the children, both emotionally and physically. In her thesis statement, Statsky states, “When overzealous parents and coaches impose adult standards on children's sports, the result can be activities that are neither satisfying nor beneficial to children” (627). While this statement is strong, her defense of it is weak.
For decades there has been a debate on student athletes and their drive to succeed in the classroom. From the very beginning of organized college level athletics, the goal to want to succeed in athletics has forced students to put academics to the back burner. In spite of the goal to want to succeed over a hundred years of attempts to check limits of intercollegiate athletic programs on colleges' academic standards still seems to struggle to this day. This brings to surface one of the most asked questions in sports, “What effect does college sports have on academics and economics?” Herbert D. Simons, Derek Van Rheenen, and Martin V. Covington, authors of “Academic Motivation and the Student Athlete” researched the topic on whether athletics and academics benefit each other. Bryan Flynn, the author of “College Sports vs. Academics” poses the question “Should institutions of higher learning continue to involve themselves in athletic programs that often turn out to be virtual arms races for recruiting talented players who bring big money and prestige, but put academics to the back burner?” Although both authors agree that sports have an impact on an athlete’s academics, the focus of their argument differs.
In today’s world schooling is a necessity to get a job. As kids, we will play some sort of sport and will always say “When I grow up I want to be a professional athlete,” for most people this goal is not realistic. So, with this comes the question, why play college sports? I know you gain certain knowledge and skill sets from them, but is it worth all the hard work and time put in to perfect your respected sport. All the time one could be studying. I believe that student athletes have a ridiculous hard time balancing social life, school, and a sport. The sacrifice to play sports in college may or may not be rewarding enough, we will just have to wait and find out for ourselves.
In one historical moment from Pamela Grundy's book Learning to Win: Sports, Education, and Social Change in Twentieth-Century North Carolina, she writes about men's college athletics between 1880 and 1901. Grundy states that "metaphors of competition gained new prominence, particularly among the members of the state's expanding middle class, which was coming to dominate public affairs" (Grundy, 12). Male college students living in North Carolina began to excel in organized athletics during this time period. "The contests on the field seemed to mirror the competitive conditions prevailing in the society at large, and the discipline, self-assertion and reasoned strategy that sports were credited with teaching meshed neatly with the qualifies required for business and political success" (Grungy, 13). People who supported athletics wholeheartedly believed it taught good values such as discipline and good character, while there were some who opposed this saying that sports were a distraction for students and thus a hindrance to their educational goals. White college men perceived athletics as a way to show their superiority and justify their presence in business as well as politics. They believed athletic sports were essential in their "vision o...